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To start the game a gender must be chosen and the player will get a sidekick character. If the player's character is male, he will meet a burly but dim-witted man named Trent; if the player's character is female, she will find an attractive but somewhat ditzy woman named Tiffany. There were a few differences in game-play between the two sexes, so players would often replay the game as the other sex, just to see what would happen.

Leather Goddesses of Phobos bore a difficulty rating of "Standard". The game has 75 locations, including the maze known as the catacombs, the planets Mars and Venus (which must be explored extensively), outer space, and the city of Cleveland, which is a single location with one building and two exits. When the player reaches the north pole of Mars, he or she is told that there are exits "south, south, and south".[1]

The game begins in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, in 1936 and is presented in the manner of a science fictionserial of that time. The Leather Goddesses of Phobos are just finalising their plans for the invasion of Earth. The player's character has been abducted by the Leather Goddesses for the final testing of the plan which will enslave all of humanity. Unless this nefarious plan is stopped, the Earth will be turned into these twisted vixens' pleasure dome. Despite the player's possible motives, this outcome is considered unfavorable.

Cover of the Lane Mastodon comic feely—the instruction manual for the game

The game featured no copy protection as such, but like many Infocom games, it included puzzles that were nearly impossible to solve without hints from the accompanying documentation (the so-called feelies). Leather Goddesses included the following feelies, one of which was quite uncommon among Infocom's games:

A small scratch and sniff card which bore seven numbered areas (at certain points in the game, the player would be instructed to scratch a certain number and then whiff the resulting odor. Given the possibilities for a game featuring a "lewd mode", the scents were relatively innocuous, such as pizza and chocolate.)

The Adventures of Lane Mastodon, a 3-Dcomic book containing vital hints to the game

Leather Goddesses of Phobos was very successful. It was Infocom's best-selling game in 1986 with 53,543 copies sold, more than 50% greater than that of Trinity, which also debuted that year.[2] The company sold a total of about 130,000 copies, three times as many as any other game after Activision bought Infocom. The game was its last to sell more than 100,000 copies, and its sixth best-selling game overall.[3]